The BPO Bubble

The Business Standard has a story on Coke entering the “business process outsourcing” business. To me this is a clear sign that BPO boom has reached bubble proportions. What does a sweet carbonated water maker have to do with BPO business, is anyone’s guess. In past two weeks, the sales of Daksh to IBM, and super duper results by Wipro and Infosys have created a hysteria around the BPOs. There is a consolidation in the business as well. Tata and EDS are looking to buy out Hughes Software and there are several other deals in the works. Still, having lived through the dot-com and telecom bubbles, my reporter synapses are firing. I am going to look into this further. Couple of executives I have met think that the increased attention and more players put the risk of hiring sub standard workers.